Princess Land tour review part 2

[Mathteach]

Here is the rest of my land review. Hope it is not too boring!

 

Princess Denali Lodge: The lodge was everything I had heard about it – both the good and the bad. First the good; the lodge is laid out very nice. There are great views of the river and the flowers are beautiful! Now the bad; when we got back to the room at 3:30 our room had not been made up and there was not a maid in sight! The people in the room next to ours were sitting outside their room and said that they had just gotten back and their room was also not made. They called the front desk and just got excuses as to why it had not been make. I then called the front desk and asked to speak to a manager and the person who answered the phone would not let me. So I told her that our room had not been made up and she just gave me really lame excuses as to why our room had not been made up, even though we had been out of it for 10 hours!! I then asked if she would comp us breakfast or even a dessert for the inconvenience and she said she did not have the power to do that – I then said that is why I had asked to talk to a manager! She said she would have him call me. I went out and told our neighbors and they said they had planned on writing a letter to Princess when they got back in hopes of getting a $100 discount on their next cruise. I told them that a free breakfast tomorrow would make me happier than a $100 credit on a cruise I may or may not take. The manager then called back, he let me vent (as I was very tired, we had gotten up very early for the 5:40 am tour) He did not make any excuses, just apologized and said there was a breakfast voucher for us at the front desk. When I told our neighbors they went down and got a breakfast voucher as well. We latter heard on the train that some people did not get their rooms made up until after 5:30 pm!!

 

More bad; On the train from Fairbanks to Denali they give you your packet with a room key. The 2 ladies we were sitting with on the train did not get a room, just note that said ‘see front desk’ These ladies had to be early 70’s late 60’s and were really wonderful people. We joked with them that they were going to get the Presidential suite or some such other wonderful surprise. It turns out that did not happen. When they got to the front desk they were given a room and when they got to the room it was a MESS!!! It had not been made up! They were tired and hungry and very upset. One of them went to walk to the front desk. On the way she met an employee who could tell she was upset and asked her what was wrong and she told him and of course he could not do anything about it as he was just a kid. A manager happen to walk by and asked what was wrong. By this time, she was almost in tears. You have to remember the time change and no one was really sleeping much with all the daylight and we always had to get up early. He said he would take care of it and gave her and her friend a free lunch while they waited for their room to be made up. 

 

More bad: While I knew our hotel on Anchorage would not have AC, I was not aware that the lodge also did not have AC. Since they were having records highs, it was very warm and we had to sleep with the window open. This was a problem in that my DH can not sleep with any light, so by the time we closed the drapes with clothes pins and shoes to stop the light, we did not get much of a breeze. Also, we were on the end and a car/golf cart kept driving by on the gravel making a lot of noise.

 

The good: Breakfast was wonderful and the service was the best we have ever had anywhere. Princess has some bugs they have to work out with the cleaning of the rooms.

 

Train to Anchorage: (just over 8 hours) We got some really nice views of Mt. McKinley from the train. It made up for not being able to see it the day before. Since we had a big free breakfast at Denali, we skipped lunch and had dinner on the train. My DH had Prime rib (about $22) and I had Pork (about $18) both very good. We split desert, cheesecake, which was also very good. There were 4 Princess train cars. On ours the temperature was perfect but on at least 2 of the others it was VERY HOT. This is because it was warmer than usual. We had a newer car with an updated AC and also better glass in the windows.

 

Anchorage: We arrived in Anchorage around 9 pm. We stayed at the Captain Cook Hotel. Great hotel, it had ceiling fans and a down comforter. Also for the first time we were not on the first floor. Our room had a view of the ocean. I wish we could have spent more time there. It was a really nice hotel. The only down side was they could not handle everyone at Breakfast. We had to rush eating so we did not miss the bus.

We walked around downtown Anchorage before we went to bed. There are a lot of homeless in Anchorage and we were approached twice for money. The second time when we said we had no spare change we were yelled at “Then get the F**K out of Alaska!” Once we had gotten a good distance away we cracked up laughing!

 

Anchorage to Whittier: We had a stop over at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. It was nice; however this is something I think we would have skipped if we had the option. We had seen things like this in New Zealand and Hawaii and we were anxious to get on the ship.

 

Embarkation: Went very smoothly.

 

 

Cell Phones: I had Verizion One Rate National plan. I did not get charged roaming fees. I was able to call home from Fairbanks airport without any problem, but then when I tried to call a different number from the Lodge I kept getting a message saying I was unauthorized to make calls and to dial *611 message 37. When I did that I was put on hold for over 10 minutes and hung up and went to dinner. After dinner I was told they were closed and to call back in the morning or leave a message. I left a message and after that did not have any problems. You do have to put a ‘1’ in front of all your numbers. I was able to make out going calls from Fairbanks, Denali, Anchorage, Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan.

 

Internet: The Fairbanks lodge and the Captain Cook Hotel had free internet service in the Business Center.

 

I will do another post about the ship and our ports as this is getting very long. If you have any questions about the land part I will be happy to answer them if I can.

 

I am glad that we did the land tour with Princess. However, if we ever go back, I think that my DH and I would do it ourselves. Too much hurry up and wait. But it was nice not having to worry about the luggage!

[nedo]

Sounds like you had a hassle on land. Hope you met some nice people on the ship :)

Judy

[Mathteach]

We had a good time on the land. Yes Judy, as you know, we met some VERY nice people on the ship :) Hope you had a good flight home!

[nedo]

e-mail address? I don't want to lose contact with you. :)

Judy

[ruvidu]

We found the Princess Land portion of our cruise, especially Denali and McKinley, to be terrible. When our train arrived at Denali Princess no rooms were ready and everyone had to sit in common areas like homeless people for hours. Food and water were deplorable and service was non-existant. We will return to Alaska but Princess will not get a dime for that trip.

Russ